Finally getting the hang of flying inverted. Spent some time Sunday with our club trainer on the Buddy box. Bob is a great instructor and master scratch builder.

A few revelations:
1) The plane should be well trimmed to begin with. Duh !
2). I was over compensating. Once I flipped the plane, I had a tendency to add too much down stick. Just needed a little pressure.
3). Was not paying close enough attention to the nose attitude.

After about 20 times around the field with our club gasser at 3 mistakes high, it started coming to me.

If you have the patience, you can get your plane trimmed up so that it will neither dive or climb when inverted. It is a combination of where you place the CG, downthrust and incidence. I have most of my bipes trimmed so that they will fly hands off both inverted and right side up but it takes a lot of trial and error adjustments to get them that way.

I disagree. I think this is more based on the plane you are using. My 3DHS 540T can do this with ease, my E-Flight Apprentice, forget it. The difference in wing design alone shoots this theory out the window.

Finally getting the hang of flying inverted. Spent some time Sunday with our club trainer on the Buddy box. Bob is a great instructor and master scratch builder.

A few revelations:
1) The plane should be well trimmed to begin with. Duh !
2). I was over compensating. Once I flipped the plane, I had a tendency to add too much down stick. Just needed a little pressure.
3). Was not paying close enough attention to the nose attitude.

After about 20 times around the field with our club gasser at 3 mistakes high, it started coming to me.

Tried two methods:

1). The half loop
2). Hard aileron

After a while , there was not one that was better than the other.

Now, I'll be doing my homework- Practice

Inability to apply just a little down-pressure on the elevator while inverted is why I adopted pinching (with a home-made tray) instead of thumbs. Pulling the stick I could make fine adjustments, pushing on the stick I really couldn't.

Just being able to control the plane while scratching my nose makes me glad I adopted a tray, though!

Every time I fly my apprentice, I try to spend the majority of my time either doing approaches, or flying inverted. I had one flight last week where about 60% of the flight was inverted. Square patterns and figure 8s.

Normally a GOOD pattern plane can be trimmed to fly upright or inverted hands off, but I never liked mine like that. I always trim mine for just a little down while inverted, but that is just me. On a trainer with a high lift airfoil, I don't think you can find a place where you can fly hands off inverted and right side up.

Really it doesn't make any difference how you trim your plane as long as you stay with that and practice enough so you can fly inverted and not get mixed up as to what you are doing. All that takes is practice and dedication. Just never get to relaxed flying inverted or you can get sidetracked and that is when you make mistakes, like giving it up at the end of the field to pull up.

Keep at it and one of these days in the not to distance future you will be flying inverted with the best of them.

That why you guys are getting better quicker at it than me. You guys keep practicing.
I'm not spending a lot of time up-side down. I did get a new Millennium Master and it is very easy to fly inverted laps with it for me. I promise I'll practice more with the MM after I move mu CG back slight.

+1 PRACTICE..PRACTICE ..PRACTICE..but i can say from experience that practice makes a wreck of a fun plane...lol....still,our fun is pushing our skills to improve. i was flying inverted all over and doing figure 8''s ,rolls in and out of inverted and half loops into inverted repeatedly spending my flight mostly upsidedown.

is it worth the risk...

SURE IS!!!!! ajslick is the next bird to push......i hope it doesn't have an early expiration date.

[this is how an expired aj slick looks like]

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narrow is the place to land...wide is the space to crash....choose the narrow way!

I just discovered this thread and haven't had time to read through all of it. I'll offer my $0.02 for what it's worth.

What got me over-the-hump on inverted confidence was flying a nearly indestructible air frame. In my case it was a SuperFly with a prop-saver. I could practice down low and in close where I could really see what I was doing. And if I screwed up and planted it (which I did MANY times), in most cases I'd just pick it up and toss it back in the air. I started getting LOTS of inverted practice because I didn't have to keep repairing or replacing airplanes!

It's a Superfly! The one he speaks off is mine now (till he wants it back), Their the same as the hyperFlea but bigger,, Delta-winged EPP foam,, Hit lightpoles at 40MPH and fly away,, tough rascals!!,, Hope Mustangman's still around somewhere, bubsteve

just started practice'n inverted myself(well trying) ive been trying to a t28 trojan. seems like when i do go inverted things happen really fast. is some of that the dihedral of the trojans wings? harder than i thought it was gonna be. plus the ol pucker factor x's itself by 10.

I've been practicing on the T-28 also. The first challenge was getting the plane on it's back. I found that coming out of a loop a few mistakes high was easiest. Had a harder time rolling without over rolling. Then the second challenge was not over controlling the elevator. Leave throttle constant. Apply even pressure on the right stick. Had to overcome over controlling. Keep the pressure smooth.

I've been practicing on the T-28 also. The first challenge was getting the plane on it's back. I found that coming out of a loop a few mistakes high was easiest. Had a harder time rolling without over rolling. Then the second challenge was not over controlling the elevator. Leave throttle constant. Apply even pressure on the right stick. Had to overcome over controlling. Keep the pressure smooth.

Good luck !

Hawk

I had to stop thumb-flying and start pinching to achieve good inverted elevator control, and my control overall improved.

If someone is 'all thumbs' and can do everything thumbs-only, great. If not, pinching may be the best style for that person.